That euphoric uncertainty is the whole point." "The moment feels like an explosion, or a rebirth. The song's narrative builds and smolders, gradually, until the climactic lament ('Take me home!') blows it all wide open," she wrote of the track. Each winking detail has been carefully chosen each image is precisely painted. "Lyrically, Swift has rarely been more in control. 29 on Insider's list of the 113 best songs of the 2010s. "Style" was even described as a "transcendent experience" by Ahlgrim, who put the track at No. "1989" brought about some of Swift's best songs ever, including the satirical track "Blank Space," the perfect bridge on "Out of the Woods," and the atmospheric "Clean," easily the holy grail among Swift's closing tracks. The '80s-synth-infused album was a smash before it was even released the lead single, "Shake It Off," was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA before the album's release and went on to become Swift's biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit to date, staying on the chart for 50 consecutive weeks. Swift has been divisive for most of her 13-year career, but in 2014 people came together to recognize her as a stellar pop musician - largely because of her fifth studio album, "1989."
It makes you really think about heartbreak in a really intense way." "I think that's what I loved about the '80s too is how emotional everything got. There's a bit of fantasy on the album in that we've heightened everything - heightened the love and heightened the drama," she told Newsday in November 2015. But Jepsen brought her own narrative and emotion to the '80s-pop resurgence. A year prior, Taylor Swift's "1989" shook the core of mid-2010s pop music, reverting to a nostalgic sound reminiscent of the year she was born. Jepsen was smart to opt for an '80s-infused sound, which she filled out with more modern alternative styles. "She's as comfortable writing and singing moody songs about clandestine trysts in a nightclub as she is describing the overwhelming and saccharine giddiness of love at first sight," Torres said. The first track, "Run Away with Me," has been hailed as Jepsen's best song to date, and even landed on Insider's list of the best eight songs of the decade it also acts as the album's thesis, asking listeners to quite literally run away with Jepsen as she embarks on the emotional journey that is the following 14 songs.Īs Insider's Libby Torres wrote of the album, with songs like the innuendo-filled "I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance" and the yearning "Gimme Love," "Jepsen proved that she couldn't be pigeonholed in her music." This glittery ode to the 1980s opens with what might be the best saxophone solo of the 21st century. If "Call Me Maybe" is what sent Jepsen up the charts, it was her third album, "Emotion," that sent her into the pop stratosphere. "Thank U, Next" is, from start to finish, a roller-coaster of emotion - albeit a genius one. She goes from forgiving exes for teaching her love, patience, and pain, to engaging in retail therapy with her friends, to wanting to watch a relationship end out of sheer boredom.
Her three singles, "Thank U, Next," "7 Rings," and "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored," are all fun and light in their own ways while showing Grande's growth beyond her grief. "Imagine" is a dreamy song that appears to be a direct response to Miller's passing, ending with whistle notes that call back to the ones used in her Miller collab, "The Way." "Ghostin" might be the most honest track in Grande's catalog, centered on the idea of feeling bad for the one you're with because you still have feelings for someone else.īut it's not all pain and heartbreak. "Needy," which Insider named one of the best songs of 2019, is a "sparkling, synth-laden ballad" and the "tender heart of 'Thank U, Next,'" Insider's Callie Ahlgrim wrote. She found solace in creating music, and the result was an album packed with some of the most vulnerable - and arguably best - tracks in Grande's entire discography.
Grande grieved in the studio with her friends after her ex Mac Miller died and she broke off her engagement to Pete Davidson. "Thank U, Next" was born out of catharsis. Grande's 2018 album, "Sweetener," elevated her to new heights, but six months later she went on to release her most personal and lyrically driven album to date. "Thank U, Next" was released on February 8, 2019.